The present invention relates to a tracking cart system using a non-contact power feeding.
In many of the conventional tracking cart systems, a rail is laid under a floor and a tracking cart is made to travel along the rail. This is because arrangement of the rail under the floor prevents dust generated by the rail part from contaminating a space above the floor and also because the rail is intended not to hamper the crew""s walking etc.
However, if the rail needs to be laid under the floor, the tracking cart system cannot be introduced unless its construction is considered in a design stage of a building and it is also difficult to alter a layout thereof. Moreover, in laying the rail, there may arise a problem of struggling of the rail against building structures, such as columns, beams, pipe arrangement, etc., for exclusive possession of a space.
There is an additional problem if the above-mentioned tracking cart system is such a system that a pair of power feeding wires are arranged along the guide rail and a high frequency current is made to flow through the wires to effect non-contact power feeding of electrical power to a pickup coil of the tracking cart, conventionally power feeding wire holders are set on the guide rail with a spacing therebetween to hold the power feeding wires, but this system causes a problem that the power feeding wires are exposed. Because of exposure of the power feeding wires, the conventional guide rail lacks a good appearance, and in the case where the guide rail is laid on the floor, the crew is likely to get held up by the power feeding wires. Further, because a number of holders are to be used, easiness of the construction is low.
It is a primary task of the present invention to provide a compact tracking cart system where the laying of the guide rail and the alteration of the layout are made to be easy and at the same time raising dust is prevented.
It is an additional task of the present invention to provide a more compact system where the guide rail is also used to put thereon marks that are to be read by a sensor or sensors in the tracking cart.
It is an additional task of the present invention to provide the guide rail equipped with the power feeding wires for non-contact power feeding which is easy to manufacture.
It is an additional task of the present invention to provide a more compact system where the power feeding wire holder is also used to put thereon marks serving as signals for the tracking cart.
It is an additional task of the present invention to provide a system where the guide rail can be installed easily on the floor of a clean room and so on.
It is an additional task of the present invention to provide a combination of the guide rail for non-contact power feeding and the power feeding wire holder both of which are easy to construct and which can realize high-accuracy positioning of the pickup coil and high reliability.
It is an additional task of the present invention to increase power feeding efficiency of the power feeding wires for feeding electrical power to the pickup coil.
It is an additional task of the present invention to provide a tracking cart system where the guide rail and the power feeding wire holder can be installed simultaneously and the positioning between the guide rail and the power feeding wire holder can be made easier.
It is an additional task of the present invention to provide a system where the guide rail and the power feeding wire holder can be installed on the floor of the clean room and so on easily.
The present invention provides a tracking cart system comprising a guide rail equipped with power feeding wires for non-contact power feeding that is laid on the floor, and a tracking cart equipped with guide rollers which are guided by the guide rail and a pickup coil for being fed electrical power by the power feeding wires.
Preferably, the guide rail is provided with marks and the tracking cart is provided with a sensor or sensors for detecting the marks.
Further, preferably, the power feeding wire holder is fixed on the guide rail along its longitudinal direction and the power feeding wires are held by this power feeding wire holder.
Moreover, preferably, the power feeding wire holder is provided with marks and the tracking cart is provided with a sensor or sensors for detecting the marks.
Furthermore, preferably, the floor is constructed as a grating floor, an attachment member is fixed to the floor with the use of holes of the floor, and then the guide rail is fixed to the attachment member.
The present invention provides a tracking cart system comprising: a guide rail, a power feeding wire holder of a contiguous shape that is provided along the longitudinal direction of the guide rail as a separate body from the guide rail, wherein these two members are positioned to each other, a pair of contiguous grooves in parallel to the guide rail are formed on the power tracking wire holder, a pair of power feeding wires are held by the pair of grooves, and a pickup coil of the tracking cart is positioned to the pair of the power feeding wires by positioning guide rollers of the tracking cart to the guide rail.
Preferably, the contiguous grooves are formed at vicinities of both ends of an almost U-shaped cross section of the power feeding wire holder, the power feeding wires are held in the contiguous grooves, and the pickup coil is positioned in a hollow part of the U-shape.
Moreover, preferably, the power feeding wire holder and the guide rail are both fixed to the attachment member on the floor by means of a common fastening member.
Furthermore, preferably, the attachment member is fixed to the floor with the use of holes formed on the grating floor.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, since the guide rail is laid on the floor in the clean room and so on, unlike a case where the guide rail is laid under the floor, the laying of the guide rail and the alteration of the layout thereof are easy to carry out. This is because there doesn""t occur the struggling of the guide rail against columns, beams, pipe arrangement, etc. for exclusive possession of a space under the floor. Further, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the power feeding wires for non-contact power feeding are set on the guide rail and serves to feed electrical power to the pickup coil of the tracking cart. Because of this power feeding system, there doesn""t occur raising dust due to contacting of relevant members at a power feeding part, so that the tracking cart system hardly contaminates the clean room and so on. Furthermore, since the power feeding wires can be integrated with the guide rail, the power feeding wires and the guide rail are made to be more compact and their laying also becomes easy.
According to the present invention, since the guide rail is provided with marks that are to be detected by the sensors of the tracking cart, control of the tracking cart becomes easy and the power feeding wires and the guide rail are made to be much more compact because the marks are integrated with the guide rail.
According to the present invention, a power feeding wire holder that requires complicated molding is preferably fixed to a guide rail made of a hard material whereof a precise element can be manufactured easily, such as aluminum, a nylon, an engineering plastic and so on. Therefore, comparing to the guide rail integrated with the power feeding wire holder in one body, this construction facilitates their manufacturing.
According to the present invention, since the power feeding wire holder is provided with marks that are to be detected by the sensors of the tracking cart, the control of the tracking cart becomes easy and the power feeding wires and the guide rail are made to be much more compact because the marks are integrated with the power feeding wires.
According to the present invention, the attachment members are preferably fixed on the grating floor in the clean room with the use of holes of the grating. Then the guide rail is preferably fixed to this attachment members. Therefore, the fixing of the guide rail becomes easier compared to the case where the guide rail is installed on the grating floor directly.
According to the present invention, the guide rail made of a hard material whereof a precise element can be manufactured easily, such as aluminum, a nylon, an engineering plastic, etc. and the power feeding wire holder of a contiguous shape that is to be installed along the longitudinal direction of this guide rail are provided in separate bodies and both the members are positioned to each other by means of pins, keys and so on. Since the power feeding wire holder is required to have a more complicated shape than the guide rail, the power feeding wire holder in a separate body that is different from the guide rail facilitates the manufacturing thereof. A pair of contiguous grooves are formed on the power feeding wire holder in parallel to the guide rail, on which the pair of power feeding wires are held, and this power feeding wires serves to feed electrical power to the pickup coil of the tracking cart in a non-contact manner. Here, if the guide rollers of the tracking cart are positioned by the guide rail, since the power feeding wire holder has already been positioned, the pickup coil of the tracking cart is concomitantly positioned to the power feeding wires.
According to the present invention, since the power feeding wire holder is in a contiguous shape along the longitudinal direction of the guide rail, the construction of the power feeding wires becomes easy. Further, since the power feeding wires are housed in the contiguous grooves of the power feeding wire holder, the crew is not liable to get held up by the power feeding wires, therefore the reliability is improved, and the good appearance of the power feeding wire holder is ameliorated. Furthermore, since the power feeding wires are positioned to the guide rail and the tracking cart is also positioned to the guide rail, the pickup coil can be positioned to the power feeding wires.
According to the present invention, the power feeding wire holder is preferably manufactured to be in an almost U-shape in its cross section of the short side and of a material of insulating synthetic resin, and the pair of contiguous grooves may be formed in the both ends of the U-shape as seen in the cross section taken along the short side of the holder, and the pickup coil may be positioned in the hollow part of the U-shape. With this structure, the pickup coil is positioned at a position placing between the pair of power feeding wires, hence achieving a high efficiency of the non-contact power feeding. Moreover, even when the pickup coil is displaced either rightward or leftward with respect to the power feeding wires, since the pickup coil displaces from the vicinity of the central part of the pair of power feeding wires to its right or left, decrease of the efficiency of power feeding is controlled to be a small quantity. For this reason, according to the present invention, electrical power can be efficiently fed to the pickup coil from the power feeding wires.
According to the present invention, the power feeding wire holder and the guide rail are preferably fixed to the attachment member on the floor using a common fastening member. Because of this structure, the positioning accuracy of the power feeding wire holder to the guide rail is improved further.
According to the present invention, the attachment member is preferably fixed to the floor with a fastening cramp with the use of holes formed on the floor. Therefore, this construction doesn""t require a work to form fixing holes on the floor, hence mitigating load of the construction personnel, and also can maintain air cleanliness class by preventing dust and particles that may be generated through a process of forming the holes in the clean room.